End of All Things

Chapter Two - Somewhere In Between

----

"Listen carefully, Ginny . You have to trust me." He paused. "Do you trust me?" Ginny almost hesitated before nodding yes. "Listen carefully," he repeated. "Winchmore Hill." He pulled away.

Ginny looked at him confused. "Win--" His hand covered her mouth again.

"Shhh. Don't repeat it," he said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Now come on." He grabbed her hand and she took the painful steps to follow him.

Suddenly she gasped. There was a building in the middle of the field. At least she thought it was a building. It looked like a old church, made out of stone. It stuck out of the ground like a cancerous growth. It hadn't been there minutes earlier. She tightened her grip on Malfoy's hand.

He led her right to it and helped her up the stairs to a large old wooden door. The iron hinges squeaked as he pushed it open and led her inside. She gasped. The chapel was cold and damp. The round walls were cracking and vines had crept their way in for refuge. Small wooden pews sat on either side of a aisle. Some were tipped over and others were broken.

Ginny was speechless. She wanted to slap Malfoy and demand some answers from him, but all the questions jumbled together in her mind. She stared at him.

He tried to avoid her gaze.

"Well?" she finally demanded, placing her hands on her hips.

"Do you want to sit down?"

"Answers, Malfoy." She glared at him. "Now."

"I'd really appreciate it if you would sit."

She glared at him harder but complied. She chose a seat on one of the hard benches and tried to find a comfortable position.

He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. Taking one from the box he offered one to her, which she declined with silence.

"What do you want to know first?" he asked while searching his pockets for a lighter.

"Where we are might be a good place to start; or how you knew about it."

The cigarette was hanging off his lips as he continued his search. He answered without missing a beat.

"This land used to be in the possession of a man of God, a certain Thomas Winchmore. Had this church built here; people said it looked like a hill and thus it got it's name." He paused in his story. "Do you have a torch?"

"Malfoy!" Ginny looked at him incredulously.

He shrugged his shoulders and stalked off the front where the alter was supposed to be. An old set of drawers stood there and he rummaged through them. "Aaha!" He cried triumphantly, pulling out an ancient looking box of matches. Finally being able to get his smoke, he continued.

"Your brothers and myself were talking about how great it would be if we could have a 'safe-house' - a place where we could run to and no one could find us. It was just a passing comment between us and nobody thought anything of it. Then Ron heard from an old acquaintance of this place. The owner had died many, many years prior and hardly anyone remembered that it was here. He checked it out and told us about it." He paused and filled his lungs with smoke.

A crack in the ceiling was letting in a steady drip from the rain. Ginny shifted on the uncomfortable pew. She regarded Malfoy with a polite interest.

"It turns out that the current owner had just died as well, their will left it in the hands of their children who wanted nothing else but to be rid of it √ for any price. Seems the old man spent most of their inheritance and they all had wished for a little more money then what was left to them. A water drop splashed on Malfoy's arm and he moved over a few feet, leaning against one of the benches. His voice echoed around the room. Ginny waited patiently till he finished his cigarette in silence and watched him put it out.

"So you bought the place", she finally said. "Did you erase the memory of the transaction from the sellers?■

Malfoy nodded. "They were greedy bastards but they agreed to anything and everything once they saw the money. We all chipped in. We"ve been trying to come up here as much as possible without drawing to much attention. We focused on the wards first putting up the correct spells and what not.■

"You're the Secret Keeper?" Ginny asked surprised. She knew that her brothers trusted Malfoy now, but handing the safety of themselves and their entire families under his word didn't seem like something they would do.

"We are all the Keepers," Malfoy replied.

'I don't understand--"

"The guys and myself. We decided that in a situation like this," he gestured with his arm, "it would be quite dangerous to have the location written on a piece of paper for anyone to find. Even if we were to charm the paper so that only the recipient could read it, the spell can still be bypassed.

"We decided to do a little spell making and managed to split the Keeper spell so that all of us were apart of it." Malfoy shifted his weight, wincing as he did so.

"Nice of you to share this with everyone," Ginny said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

He gave her a cheeky grin in return. "We didn't want to tell anyone. The less people knew, the less they could talk.■

Ginny considered this.

"So where is everyone else?" she finally asked.

Malfoy had been praying she wouldn't ask that. They had been here for a good forty or so minutes and no one else had shown. He'd be lying through his teeth if he said he wasn't worried. They had set a plan, and so far he was the only one that had followed through with it.

He walked over to one of the windows that encircled the building and peered out. His footsteps echoed around the building, the loose dirt on the floor crunching with every move. Outside all was quite. There was nothing out there. He knew this of course. The vicinity ward that had been placed around the field had not gone off. He didn't tell Ginny.

They remained silent, and he let the unanswered question hang in the air like a thick curtain. The rain started to let up and only a soft drizzle fell. The wind had picked up and the clouds were making their way quickly across the sky. A small break in the distance showed a full moon, but the passing clouds swallowed up the brightness, making the land dark once again.

Finally Malfoy faced Ginny again. Bruises were already starting to form on her arms and face. The cloth he had tied around her neck, once white, was now a bright red. Her eyes were closed and it appeared to him that she had dropped off in sleep. He moved closer to her, taking each step carefully, making as small of noise as possible.

Her chest rose and fell softly with her slow and shallow breathing. Malfoy sat on another bench and sat looking at her. He wanted to help her, but without his wand, he was next to useless in the art of healing. Her hair, which was damp and dirty fell across her face. He stood back up and pushed it to the side, taking care as to not wake her. She shivered slightly under his touch and he recoiled his hand quickly.

This wasn't the way it was supposed to be. He should have snuck away more often to come and work on the place. Malfoy thought of all the moments when he could have been here getting it ready for the attack instead of reading. He reminded himself that it was not just his fault that the old church was in the state that it was. What was the point of coming here without the proper necessities to live like food or even blankets.

He mentally kicked himself for bringing Ginny here; all he did was throw them into a corner with no means of ways to survive.

Ginny sighed and shifted slightly in her pew. Malfoy watched her quietly. He needed to get her help. She wouldn't survive much longer in the condition she was in. Slowly he raised his hand again to her face and placed it over one of her many wounds. He closed his eyes and focused on the spot in his mind; slowly he pictured the wound becoming smaller and finally disappearing, leaving no mark on her skin. He took a deep breath and quickly opened his eyes, removing his hand to look at the wound. It was still there, but it appeared to have healed slightly.

"Damn," he cursed softly. He turned abruptly and went to the window, looking out. Why hadn't he picked even one of the many wands that were lying around the field who's master were no where to be seen. Damn him. Damn them for breaking his wand. Damn them for even existing. He kicked the wall in frustration.

Malfoy shivered despite himself. A cold wind had picked up and it swept through the stone building like it was made out of grass. He glanced back towards Ginny who was still asleep.

They needed a plan if they were to survive; they needed a bloody good one. He formed it in his mind, going over a mental checklist of everything they would need to make it through till the end. He would need a wand; two if he could manage it. And food, of course. They were going to hide. He winced at the thought of her reaction when he would tell her. She never was one to run away from a fight.

They wouldn't be running away, he reminded himself. They needed to regain their strength before they tried any fighting though. He knew they would fight. No one can make it through a war without fighting. No matter where or how far anyone would run, they would always have to fight.

----

Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns the characters. The plot is my own.

Please review! I would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions!